Capital Inspiration: Tricks Businesses in London Use to Manage Staff

Managing staff effectively is a skill that is best developed over years of experience with managing people.

However, it is something that any business owner can learn to do if they choose to. London is probably the most competitive business market in the UK, but it is also the biggest by far. Here are some of the tricks that business owners in London use to manage their staff.

Communication

Communication is the key to success for any business. The easier you find it to communicate with your workers, and the easier they can communicate with one another, the more effectively you will be able to lead. Having well-understood and consistently observed procedures for communicating throughout your team will greatly improve the efficiency of your workflow.

One of London’s defining characteristics is its multicultural atmosphere. Many employers and managers within London are in charge of diverse teams. When you have a workforce, a large portion of whom speak English as a second language, it is important that you take this into account. For businesses where workers will be exposed to serious health hazards, it is especially important that you and your staff are capable of communicating effectively.

Keep Employees Motivated

A key aspect of effective employee management is the ability to keep them motivated and engaged with their work. Often, this is easier said than done. Usually, the difficulty that employers have in keeping staff motivated is directly related to the type of job they are doing. As you may well expect, businesses that pay less, or where staff turnover is relatively high, often have a harder time keeping staff motivated.

Of course, in some jobs it is appropriate that pay is lower, or that employees are expected to move on in a reasonably short space of time. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t still important to keep your workers happy and motivated. Not only will you reap the rewards in the form of increased productivity and job satisfaction amongst your employees, you will also benefit from the inevitable boost your business will receive to its reputation.

Many businesses in London have found that using agency workers and temp staff is much more cost-effective than hiring new full-time employees. This business model presents some unique challenges in terms of keeping morale up. For example, many of the waitressing jobs in London are now filled by temporary staff. If you employ temporary staff, make sure that you take some extra time to help them integrate with your permanent staff members. Include them in teambuilding exercises and ensure that you give them the best possible view of your business. You never know when you are going to encounter a temp worker who you might want to employ permanently.

Don’t Micromanage

This is a mistake commonly made by small business owners, and in the cutthroat business that is London, it isn’t hard to understand why business owners would want to retain as much control over their businesses as possible. However, excessive micromanaging will ultimately hinder your business, not help it. It is important to have some faith in the staff that you hire. Remember that there is a reason you chose them for your team, so trust them and they will often exceed your expectations. If you never even give your staff the chance to show you what they are capable of, you might never realise the talent you have at your disposal.

Lead by Example

This is some of the most important advice for any good business leader to remember, you cannot ask of your staff what you aren’t willing to practice yourself. This is an essential consideration if you want to maintain a sense of unity amongst your staff. If they think you are asking them to implement policies and behaviour which they don’t find reasonable, or which they see you aren’t capable of yourself, it can be seriously damaging for morale.

Managing your staff effectively isn’t always easy but learning to do so is one of the most important skills you will develop as a leader. London is a uniquely challenging environment for entrepreneurs, they need every trick at their disposal in order to thrive here.